No President Has Ever Been Better To Gay People. Thank You President Obama. [View all]
Last edited Wed Jun 26, 2013, 02:34 PM - Edit history (1)
I'm a gay man nearing 50 and I've been there for a lot of the gay rights fights. I've been hassled by cops, I've been jumped and would have been beaten except I beat them instead. When I was younger it was illegal for two men to dance together on the West Coast.
Yes, in the 1960s and 70s two men could be arrested for dancing in California. Now they can marry. There is still work to be done, but until you walk through the gay part of town scared someone is going to introduce your teeth to a baseball bat, you don't truly understand that gay people are persecuted on a daily basis.
President Obama has stood firmly in his support of me. He did not grandstand, he did not act showy, he did not scream from the bully pulpit. He just simply stood firm and let the right wing scream and gnash their teeth and show themselves to be hate mongers. And then Obama did his business.
He stopped prosecuting, he changed rules, he stood firm. He helped change the world.
DOMA, a dagger in my heart as a tax-paying-domestically-partnered homosexual. Gone.
DADT, an insult beyond belief to the gay Americans who have given their lives to this country. Gone.
Gay Marriage, something you don't understand if your own marriage isn't invalidated the minute you cross state lines to go visit your inlaws in the south, is now going to be respected, at least by the government, no matter where I am in the country. (and, yes, lots of work to be done in this area, but the first major hurdle has been cleared).
It is a big day at our domestically-partnered household. We don't want this "back of the bus" union any longer. Governor Brown just announced clerks in California must start issuing same sex marriage licenses. When the most populated states start changing on an issue, the rest will often follow.
Thank you President Obama. The right wing has attacked you in ways that no other President has ever faced. The Right Wing Slop Trough known as FOX has rallied the ignorant and hateful to try and stop everything you have tried to accomplish. But today your guidance moved the country forward. Today you became a President who made the world better. Lincoln, Kennedy, Johnson and now, sir, I proudly put you on that list of American Presidents who fought ignorance and hate. You are a true civil rights leader in your own quiet way. Thank you.
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